Family Voices and the Practice of Memory: Five Generations of Women in Rome

The contribution opens the first part of the book, investigating the process of building family memory and family identity. In an intimate account, it explores five generations of women in the author's own family with the attempt to restore the silent female voices in the genealogy of great men, represented by her male ancestors – Italian Risorgimento heroes. A personal reconstruction of family memory practice is an occasion to discuss various forms of family narrations – with the author's mother and with her ancestors through diaries, letters and photographs, during which family tellings and Italian history become confronted. The author demonstrates how family memory is able to change the perspectives of official national history while an interplay of private and public can contribute to a deeper understanding of one’s own family.